


As in Life, So Too in Death

by upperplanespatron



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Also this is not how the Triforce actually works in canon lol, But I just finished BOTW and wanted to write about the Triforce so I'm rolling with it, Character Death, Conflating the Triforce with the characters, Does not take place during any particular timeline or game, Headcanon, Mild Gore, Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), No Dialogue, No Plot/Plotless, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Possible BOTW and Skyward Sword spoilers, References to Canon, Reincarnation, Stream of Consciousness, The Triforce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25008940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/upperplanespatron/pseuds/upperplanespatron
Summary: The lived moments and the in-betweens are often better known than the beginnings or the ends, and yet the pattern remains for those who possess the Triforce:Power is born first; Courage, second; Wisdom, third.They die in much the same way.- - -(A short and relatively plotless [and very much noncanonical] take on the Triforce, reincarnation, and the three people trapped in the endless cycle of death and re-birth.)
Relationships: Ganondorf & Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	As in Life, So Too in Death

Power is always born first.

Boy-Gerudo are rare, so when the Triforce of Power is without a form of flesh it latches desperately onto the bones and sinew of whatever poor voe is next birthed into a world already destined to hate him.

The taint of Demise stains him when he first becomes aware of this yet-deserved hate.

Courage is always born second.

Hylian boys are common enough to leave fate not wanting for choice, yet the Triforce of Courage is not overly selective. It senses Power and in its haste to guard the world (though time flows strange for Courage, and haste may sometimes last many mortal years) randomly picks a babe as it still grows in the womb.

This early sticking will ensure the body will be strong and true and never-failing – and always appear in some way similar to the first Hero despite the parentage – but the process is potent and unintentionally violent in a way which will inevitably rob the child of his voice.

Wisdom is always born third.

She comes when Power and Courage have already been unleashed, themselves two beings so vicious and primordial in their potential for horrific physicality through their combat that the world yearns for the balance brought by her mind.

The Royal line never knows when Wisdom’s child will next grace their halls, but in most timelines they are in a constant state of preparation for her inevitable arrivals. Royal pregnancies are often treated as nearly sacred events (and, in some ways, perhaps they are), and Hyrule’s castle is frequently shaped for Wisdom’s presence: a beacon of mortal knowledge, filled with so many books and scrolls and frequent visits from scholars and philosophers that many more lifetimes would be needed to truly understand all of the information in its entirety.

They also name each firstborn Zelda, just in case.

And yet the lives of heroes and villains, of beings foretold in legend and prophecy, must like all life eventually end. But for the possessors of the Triforce, they do so in much the same way as they begin.

Power is always the first to die.

The reincarnation cycles which become folk tales and legends are the exceptions, not the rule. In most lives, he clings to himself in face of the taint and never truly becomes a King of Evil. This clinging can last for days or months or years, sometimes even decades, and yet there always comes a moment in every lifetime where he can no longer fight and must decide if the taint of Demise will overcome him and if he will give in to the building lust for power.

When he does succumb, his end is garish: a villain’s demise; a mighty final battle. His corpse will reek of a putrid rot so sickening it is almost sweet, and the Master Sword will drip with Power’s blighted gore.

When he does not succumb, his end is quiet: he finds Courage and Wisdom (or, often, they find each other, as the Triforce never truly stops yearning to be complete once more) and asks and begs, politely and humbly and entirely the antithesis of himself from lives when he has bathed in taint, to be allowed to die while he still holds true to who he is.

The Master Sword glows in the presence of evil.

In most of Power’s endings, the Sword never glows.

Courage is always the second to die.

The life of the Hero is the shortest, if measured in days or years. He finds his end while still a youth far more often than Power or Wisdom. His lives tend to be the most dangerous, after all: a mercenary, a knight, a child-solider. The number of times he has lived long enough to grow grey can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

In truth, Courage would die long before the others if not for the way fate forces his body and mind to cling to life until Power has been defeated. Time bends towards the Hero and pushes him in the direction of eventual victory regardless of his own actions, like a weaver continuously ripping threads from their loom and forcing the then-frayed fibers to try again and again until it properly finishes the tapestry. If the Hero ever falters (a rarity, but never an impossibility while the possessors of the Triforce still cling to some small sliver of free-will), then the weaver will burn the half-finished work and begin to weave with the ashes instead.

Courage is a stubborn thing, in that regard. He often dies many times before he truly finds his end.

Wisdom is always the third to die.

Her life is the most stable of the three, in many ways. Wisdom frequently lives decades longer than her counterparts, unburdened by the inconsistency of Power’s ability to hold true to himself or Courage’s susceptibility to having lifespans chronically shortened by violence. Perhaps this trend is coincidence, and perhaps it is the result of the Goddess she both once was and always will be. Or perhaps it is simply because Hyrule needs Wisdom for the longest – needs her guiding hand and quick wit to stabilize and soothe once Power and Courage have performed their respective parts in the never-ending dance that is the three people’s rebirths.

In many other ways, her life is the least stable. Of the three, she most clearly sees the threads of fate which dance mockingly just beyond her reach: sees action and consequence, sees plans and counterplans. She sees the threat of Power’s tainted struggles, sees the weaver re-weaving Courage again and again.

As the last remaining alive, Wisdom also most keenly feels the emptiness that comes from being the only piece of the Triforce to exist on the plane of flesh and blood. Even when each reincarnation lives in tandem the Triforce always wants to be whole; the Triforce is always yearning and _pulling_ towards its own completion. Each possessor will know this feeling well enough: they will, in some vague and distant part of themselves, always feel incomplete. Not defective as people, but certainly not _whole._

This feeling is exasperated when only one piece remains in a reincarnation cycle. And so Wisdom sits with emptiness and deficiency, like an incurable anemia of the spirit, whenever she creeps alone towards her own endings. She is full in her personhood but always half-done in a way so soul-deep and aching that an endless want sticks to her bones and her soul.

In a way, her fragmentation is its own kind of dying.


End file.
